Sunday, July 31, 2011

The need for Torah objecitvity

A friend sent me the following quote. I have learned the same lesson personally through discovering my own prejudices due to my training in philosophy.

R' Shimon Schwab
Selected Essays pg 151 [emphasis added]

“Finally, there is one important reason that the sincere Torah im derech eretz scholar should actively support the “Torah Only” school. It is possible that the occupation with secular philosophy has imperceptibly tainted the indigenous purity of genuine Torah thinking. Perhaps the invasion of foreign ideas has beclouded the genuine and original Jewish predispositions and attitudes. Subconsciously, our inner directions may have changed ever so slightly. In those circumstances, who would discover the change? It is the “Torah Only” scholar who would be quick to notice a deviation from the genuine pattern. And his reaction would be to call immediate attention to the slightest foreign intrusion.
All those who need a reliable compass for the windy passage through unchartered seas of Jewish Weltanschnauung should therefore welcome the “Torah Only” school as a sounding board and testing ground for creative Jewish thinking today.”